Is Silicone Necessary?

A couple of people have asked me what does the silicone do, is it necessary?

The short answer is yes, for sure it’s needed, although sometimes you can get fair cells without it, by using alcohol instead of silicone.

How does it work?  I’m not sure, but I think it’s action is in rising to the surface through the layers of paint, causing them to layer on the outside of the silicone oil as it’s rising through the paint layers. It’s all based on the Specific gravity of the paints which goes where.

Here are two tiles, made from the same paint mixture–the first one didn’t have any silicone or alcohol added. The second had about 7-10 drops of silicone in each color.  I tried to add about the same amount of each paint.

No silicone added to any of the paint mixtures. Tan area are the tile showing through–possibly dirty (greasy) tile.
Same mixture of paint, with added 10 drops of silicone to each color before putting them together.

I hope this information has been useful to you. If you have anything to add or coment on please do so in the comments.

4 thoughts on “Is Silicone Necessary?”

  1. Hope you remember me. Your work is exciting to explore for me to take on a new art experience. I gave up pottery last year at age 94. Just got too difficult to move around the studio. Are there any books on this medium you would recommend to a beginner? Keep up the great work.

  2. Hi Bonnie. So glad to hear from you, and wonderful you are keeping up with art in a more manageable form. Thanks for the comment. Yes, there is one book that I know of–just a small pamphlet style book, but published on Amazon I think. I’ll look it up and e-mail you the info and a link if I find one. Also keep looking here on my blog. Sign up for e-mail update is you want to know when I post. I’m working on doing some other things with the dirty pouring on larger canvases.

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